Meet the Firefox of the future

They’re only mockups, but they show the direction that Web browsers are headed, and it’s definitely a case of less being more.

Mozilla has posted to its wiki early concept designs for Firefox 4.0, and they show a Web browser doing its best to get out of the way of the pages it displays. The interface is decidedly minimal, giving more room for what really matters: content.

In the first of several mockups of the Windows version of Firefox 4.0, the browser page tabs are in the usual place, atop the page viewer, but other buttons have been absorbed, with only the most important left on the interface.

In the second, the tabs are placed over the address bar, similar to the layout found in Chrome and the last beta of Safari 4. (In the final version of Safari 4, Apple returned to the more traditional tab location.)

In fact, users of Chrome and Safari will recognize a lot of design elements from those browsers,such as placing the refresh and stop-loading buttons in the address bar. But who knows how the final version will ultimately turn out? These are, after all, just mockups, posted for discussion.

Still, the overall trend is toward a minimalistic interface. And Stephen Shankland, writing in CNet’s Webware blog, appreciates that browser developers are giving him more Web-page real estate:

Mozilla’s ultimate goal is to make the user interface step into the background as much as possible — indeed, the mobile-phone version of Firefox now under development has no visible user interface until it’s needed. "Every time a user has to think about how to do something, instead of what (he wants) to do, we as software creators have failed," said Aza Raskin, Mozilla’s leader of user interface work.

But it’s not simple to redesign the browsers. Users can be confused when interfaces change, some controls are essential, and hiding them can cause problems.

"The challenge to reducing UI (user interface) is in recognition versus recall. People generally use what they see," Raskin said. "How can we provide one-click access to everything possible on the Web without also cluttering the screen? That’s a question we are still answering."

I like these changes, but I also like the convenience of having buttons I use frequently at the ready — which is one reason why I really like the Ribbon interface on the newer versions of Microsoft Office.

Hopefully, Firefox’s interface will remain highly customizable in future versions, so individual users can have it their way.

How do you like your browser interface? Lean, or with all the right tools at your disposal?